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The greatest contribution from the authorities that participate in the Americas Water Forum is to propose solutions for the issue of financing water management. This is what the president of the World Water Council, Loïc Fauchon, expects as he spoke at the opening of the Forum this Monday morning in Foz do Iguaçu.

Around 200 authorities from the 37 countries in the three Americas are gathered to discuss the main problems on the continent in relation to water resources. The Forum defines the positions of the American countries that will be taken to the World Forum to take place in March 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey.

According to Fauchon, there is no infrastructure to promote good water management practices in many countries on the American continent. “You need to find means to gather together the resources to finance the infrastructure plans,” he alerted.

Fauchon said that he thought it best to share the management among the different governmental spheres in order to reconcile political and technical issues. “We have the responsibility to put into practice knowledge from each country and region. The Council needs your contribution,” he concluded.

Various Themes

Floods in the United States, lack of infrastructure in the small Caribbean islands, basic sanitation in Central America, or shared management of river basins in South America. During two days of Forum the countries of a region so diverse as the American continent will try to find solutions for issued that affect the population.

“In the United states, if a hurricane is close to the coast, people can travel 1,000 miles inland," said the executive director of the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, Patrícia Aquing. “On the Caribbean Islands, if we travel 1,000 miles, we are no longer on the island,” she pointed out. That is why, according to her, it is necessary to invest in infrastructure that is capable of protecting the people wherever they are.

In the case of Brazil, the differences between the regions and the shared management of the water resources with the neighboring countries are some of the main issues. Foz do Iguaçu and the semi-arid regions is the best example of the contrasts that exists in Brazil. The governor of Bahia, Jacques Wagner, affirmed that in his state only 30% of the rural population has access to water. “With the transposition of the São Francisco River we could improve this access, taking water that will ensure the development of the most remote communities,” he defended.

For the Minister of Environment, Carlos Minc, there is a special concern with the management of the Guarani Aquifer. “We need to work together to maintain the quality of the aquifer. It doesn’t help for one country to do everything just right if the neighboring country contaminates these waters,” he affirmed.

The management of the Amazon and Plata basins should be done as a joint effort, defended director-president of the National Water Agency (ANA), José Machado. Rivers such as the Amazon, which begins and cuts through neighboring countries before crossing the North Region of Brazil, are according to him examples of the importance of integrated management.